SULLIVAN – William Grimes, one of three men accused in the 2012 murder of retired Sullivan County farmer Lowell Badger, appeared in a Sullivan County courtroom on Friday. Grimes faces murder charges in connection with the death of the 85-year-old.
During the court appearance, Grimes’s attorney requested that his client be moved closer to Sullivan County for the upcoming legal proceedings. Currently, Grimes is being housed in Pendleton.
The prosecution and defense discussed the questions that will be posed to potential jurors during the trial selection process. A key point of discussion was the extent to which potential jurors may be aware of the case due to pre-trial publicity, a factor often considered in high-profile cases.
Lowell R. Badger, a retired farmer, was killed sometime between Friday, December 7th, and the morning of December 8th, 2012, authorities said. Badger was an 85-year-old retired Sullivan County farmer who was found deceased in his rural home on December 8, 2012.
A probable cause affidavit states that the Grimes brothers and Taft robbed and killed Badger, taking his safe, his television, and the money in his pockets. Two individuals who gave statements to police have differing accounts of the murder.
One of them states that Taft took a gun from the others and shot Badger. However, a different individual stated that Arthur Grimes took the gun from Taft and said he would show Taft “how it was done.”
Grimes is scheduled to appear for another court hearing on April 25th. His trial in Sullivan County is currently set to begin on May 12th.
William Grimes, along with his brother Arthur Grimes and Richard Taft, were all charged in connection with the shooting death of Lowell Badger, which occurred in 2012.
